French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou yesterday warned parliament about his country’s spiralling debt and said he was ready to reopen talks on pension reform, hoping to avoid defeat in any no-confidence vote that could prolong the country’s rumbling political crisis.“The task that the country has set for us is to return to stability,” he said in his first policy speech to a divided parliament.Bayrou, who became France’s fourth prime minister in a year when he took office a month ago, faces a huge challenge to get agreement on a long-overdue budget plan for 2025 and resolve bitter disputes over a controversial pension reform.Like his predecessor Michel Barnier, who lasted just three months before being deposed in a no-confidence vote, Bayrou lacks a majority in the National Assembly and could be dispatched just as easily if he fails to win at least tacit backing from enough opposition deputies.French politics was plunged into chaos last year when President Emmanuel Macron called an election to break political deadlock but the vote returned a hopelessly divided lower chamber.A sustainable budget plan for this year is the priority for Bayrou, 73, after Barnier’s austerity budget was jettisoned along with his government.Bayrou has been negotiating with the various blocs, with the far-right and most of the left rejecting deep spending cuts.But Bayrou is mindful of the need to tackle France’s spiralling deficit and growing debt.In his speech, he zoomed in on the issue, saying it was his government’s greatest worry.“This debt is a sword of Damocles over our country and our social model,” Bayrou said. “We have many reasons to worry, but one emerges with resounding force: our excessive debt.”His government is under pressure from the European Commission for overspending and from high refinancing costs demanded by financial markets.Bayrou said the 2025 public-sector deficit target was now projected at 5.4% of gross domestic product (GDP), against 5% targeted by Barnier’s administration.Economic growth was projected at 0.9% for the year, down from a 1.1% target by the previous government.A deficit level of three percent of GDP, demanded by EU deficit rules, would be reached in 2029, Bayrou promised.Bayrou has concentrated on winning over centre-left Socialist deputies but no deal has been announced.The far-left France Unbowed (LFI) party said it would lodge a no-confidence motion, which is likely to be debated tomorrow or Friday.The Greens will vote in favour of the motion, said representative Cyrielle Chatelain.To be successful, the motion would need Socialist backing after the far-right National Rally (RN) party said it was not seeking to topple Bayrou.The Socialist party did not make its position clear.Beyond the budget, a 2023 law to reform France’s fragile pensions system has most opposition up in arms, with Socialists and other leftist parties demanding it be scrapped.The plan notably includes a gradual increase in the retirement age to 64 years from 62. In a major departure from his predecessor’s policies, Bayrou said that he was ready to reopen discussions on the pension reform.He said he had “decided to put this issue back on the table, with the social partners, for a short time and under transparent conditions.”“It is my conviction that we can seek a new reform path, without totems or taboos, even on the age of retirement,” Bayrou said.But he warned that if no agreement was reached, the 2023 pensions law would remain intact.Boris Vallaud, head of the Socialist deputies in the National Assembly, said the Socialists were ready to discuss the pension reform but wanted the current version of the law dropped.He indicated he was disappointed by the prime minister’s proposals.“This is not enough,” Vallaud said.Hard-left firebrand Jean-Luc Melenchon accused the Socialists of dealing a blow to the left-wing New Popular Front alliance by negotiating with the government.Jordan Bardella, the leader of the far-right National Rally, said on X Bayrou’s speech was proof “that he is not a man who has broken with the past, but a man of spineless continuity, idle talk and endless concertation”.Macron, in his New Year speech last month, acknowledged his decision to dissolve the National Assembly had led to “divisions” and “instability”.Constitutional rules mean new legislative elections cannot be called until July.
